The Young Bucks
Nick: |birth_place = Rancho Cucamonga, California, U.S. |resides = Hesperia, California, U.S. |names = Los Gallineros Generation Me The Jackson Brothers Matt and Nick Jackson The Young Bucks |height = Matt: Nick: |weight = Matt: Nick: |billed = |trainer = Ron Rivera Rudos Dojo Marty Jannetty |debut = August 8, 2004 |retired = }} The Young Bucks is an American professional wrestling tag team, consisting of real life brothers Matthew and Nicholas Massie (also known by their ring names Matt and Nick Jackson) from Southern California. They are best known for their work in Ring of Honor (ROH) and New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). They are former one-time IWGP Tag Team Champions, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship a record seven times, three reigns as ROH World Tag Team Champions, three reigns as NJPW's NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions (twice with Bullet Club teammate Kenny Omega, and once with Marty Scurll), and one reign as ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions (with Bullet Club teammate Adam "Hangman" Page). On the independent circuit, they have won numerous titles as well, including four reigns as PWG World Tag Team Champions as well as being the only team to win PWG's annual Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Title Tournament on three separate occasions (2009, 2011, and 2013). On two occasions, first in 2014 and again in 2016, they held the ROH World, PWG World, and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships simultaneously. Professional wrestling career Dragon Gate (2008–2009) The Young Bucks would make their debut for Dragon Gate (DG) in Tokyo, Japan at the Korakuen Hall on May 14, 2008, in a match where they were defeated by Susumu Yokosuka and Ryo Saito. Their first tour of the company spanned from May 14 to June 14. Their second tour started on August 9, 2008, and ended on August 28, 2008. On September 5, 2008, the Young Bucks took part in Dragon Gate's first show in the United States, held in Los Angeles, California, where they unsuccessfully challenged Saito and Yokosuka for the Open The Twin Gate Championship. Their third and most recent tour spanned from April 15 to May 5, 2009. On May 3, 2009, in Ishikawa Matt and Nick successfully defended their PWG World Tag Team titles against Shingo Takagi and Akira Tozawa, the first time those titles had been defended in Japan. Their biggest match of the last tour took place on May 5, 2009, in Aichi, Japan at the Aichi Prefectural Gym at the Dead or Alive pay-per-view. The Young Bucks and Ryoma teamed up in a losing effort against Akira Tozawa, Kenshin Chikano and Anthony W. Mori. Dragon Gate USA (2009–2010, 2012, 2013) On July 25, 2009, the Young Bucks appeared on Dragon Gate USA's (DGUSA) first pay-per-view Enter the Dragon in a match, where they defeated the Warriors-5 of Cima and Susumu Yokosuka. On September 6 at the second PPV titled Untouchable they were defeated in the main event by the Real Hazard of Ryo Saito and Genki Horiguchi. On November 28 at the third PPV Freedom Fight the Young Bucks wrestled in the same 6-way Open the Freedom Gate Championship tournament match, which was won by Gran Akuma. After signing contracts with TNA Wrestling, the Young Bucks made their fourth appearance for Dragon Gate USA on January 23, 2010, at Fearless, where they competed in a three-way elimination tag team match, which was won by the WORLD-1 (Naruki Doi and Masato Yoshino). They were advertised to take part in the March 26 and 27 shows in Phoenix, Arizona, but TNA made the decision to pull them from the events. However, in February TNA and Dragon Gate USA came to an agreement and the Young Bucks will be allowed to make their farewell appearances. In March the Young Bucks made their final appearances for the company, losing to Cima, Gamma and Dragon Kid at Open the Ultimate Gate on the 26 in a six-man tag team match, where they teamed with Jack Evans and losing to Mike Quackenbush and Jigsaw in a tag team match at the tapings of Mercury Rising on the 27. The Young Bucks returned to the promotion on January 27, 2012, defeating Chuck Taylor and Scorpio Sky in a tag team match. The Young Bucks returned to Dragon Gate USA on January 25, 2013, defeating D.U.F. (Arik Cannon and Sami Callihan) in a tag team match. At the following day's iPPV, The Young Bucks picked up another win over the Jimmyz (Jimmy Susumu and Ryo "Jimmy" Saito), before going on to lose against the team of Akira Tozawa and AR Fox during another iPPV on January 27. On April 6 at Open the Ultimate Gate 2013, The Young Bucks defeated AR Fox and Cima to become the new Open the United Gate Champions. They made their first successful title defense on June 2 at an event promoted by Dragon Gate USA's close affiliate, Evolve, defeating Eita and Tomahawk T.T. Their second successful defense took place on July 28 at Enter the Dragon 2013, Dragon Gate USA's fourth anniversary event, where they defeated Rich Swann and Ricochet. They lost the title to the Bravado Brothers on November 16. New Japan Pro Wrestling (2013–2019) On October 15, 2013, New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) announced that The Young Bucks would be making their debuts for the promotion in the 2013 Super Jr. Tag Tournament, which started October 25. They got the booking through Kazuchika Okada, whom they had befriended during his stay in TNA. In their debut, The Young Bucks would represent the heel foreigner stable Bullet Club. In their debut match for the promotion, The Young Bucks defeated fellow Americans Beretta and Brian Kendrick, thanks to a pre-match assault by the rest of Bullet Club, to advance to the semifinals of the Super Jr. Tag Tournament. During the next two weeks, New Japan held seven smaller shows, with The Young Bucks main eventing every one of them, teaming with Bullet Club stablemate Karl Anderson in six-man tag team matches against the IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada and members of his Chaos stable. The Young Bucks suffered their first loss in the promotion on October 30, when they and Anderson were defeated by Gedo, Jado and Okada, who pinned Nick for the win. On November 6, The Young Bucks first defeated Gedo and Jado in the semifinals and then another Chaos team, the Forever Hooligans, in the finals to win the 2013 Super Jr. Tag Tournament. As a result of their win, The Young Bucks received a shot at the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship and on November 9 at Power Struggle, defeated Suzuki-gun (Taichi and Taka Michinoku) to become the new champions. The Young Bucks returned to New Japan on January 4, 2014, at Wrestle Kingdom 8 in Tokyo Dome, where they made their first successful title defense in a four-way match against the Forever Hooligans, Suzuki-gun and Time Splitters (Alex Shelley and Kushida). The Young Bucks made their second successful title defense on February 11 at The New Beginning in Osaka against the Time Splitters. Towards the end of the match, Matt legitimately broke his hand. Later that same event, Nick confronted and challenged IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Kota Ibushi. Nick received his title shot on April 3, but was defeated by Ibushi. Three days later at Invasion Attack 2014, The Young Bucks successfully defended the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship against Ibushi and El Desperado. On May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2014, The Young Bucks made their fourth successful title defense against the Forever Hooligans. The Young Bucks made their fifth successful defense on May 10 during the NJPW and ROH co-produced Global Wars event in Toronto, defeating Forever Hooligans and Time Splitters in a three-way match. From May 30 to June 6, The Young Bucks took part in the 2014 Best of the Super Juniors tournament, where they wrestled in separate blocks. They both finished with a record of four wins and three losses, narrowly missing advancement to the semifinals. As a result of losing to Alex Shelley and Kushida during the tournament, The Young Bucks and Time Splitters faced off in another IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship match on June 21 at Dominion 6.21, where The Young Bucks' seven-month reign came to an end. The Young Bucks received a rematch for the title on October 13 at King of Pro-Wrestling in a three-way match also involving Forever Hooligans, but were again defeated by Time Splitters. In November, The Young Bucks made it to the finals of the 2014 Super Jr. Tag Tournament, where they were defeated by reDRagon. On January 4, 2015, at Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome, The Young Bucks unsuccessfully challenged reDRagon for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship in a four-way match also involving Forever Hooligans and Time Splitters. On February 11 at The New Beginning in Osaka, The Young Bucks defeated reDRagon and Time Splitters in a three-way match to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship for the second time. On April 5 at Invasion Attack 2015, The Young Bucks lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship to Roppongi Vice (Beretta and Rocky Romero) in their first title defense. The Young Bucks regained the title from Roppongi Vice on May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2015 in a three-way match, also involving reDRagon. They made their first successful title defense in a three-way rematch on July 5 at Dominion 7.5 in Osaka-jo Hall. They lost the title to reDRagon in their second defense on August 16. The Young Bucks won the title for the record-tying fourth time in a four-way match on January 4, 2016, at Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome. Their reign ended in their first defense on February 11 at The New Beginning in Osaka, where they were defeated by Matt Sydal and Ricochet in a three-way match, also involving reDRagon. In early 2016, The Young Bucks formed Bullet Club subgroup The Elite with Kenny Omega, after helping him kick A.J. Styles out of the stable. On February 20 at Honor Rising: Japan 2016, The Elite defeated Jay Briscoe, Mark Briscoe and Toru Yano to win the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship. They lost the title to Hiroshi Tanahashi, Michael Elgin and Yoshitatsu on April 10 at Invasion Attack 2016, before regaining it on May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2016. On June 19 at Dominion 6.19 in Osaka-jo Hall, The Young Bucks won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship for the fifth time by defeating Matt Sydal and Ricochet, reDRagon and Roppongi Vice in a four-way elimination match. With the win, The Young Bucks became the first ever team to hold the title five times. On July 3, The Young Bucks and Omega lost the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship to Matt Sydal, Ricochet and Satoshi Kojima. On August 21, The Young Bucks made their first successful defense of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship against the reunited Motor City Machine Guns. After their win, The Young Bucks made a challenge for NJPW's "heavyweight" tag team title, which led to a match on September 22 at Destruction in Hiroshima, where they unsuccessfully challenged reigning IWGP Tag Team Champions The Briscoe Brothers. Three days later at Destruction in Kobe, The Young Bucks and Adam Cole were defeated by David Finlay, Ricochet and Satoshi Kojima in a match for the vacant NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship. This led to a match on October 10 at King of Pro-Wrestling, where The Young Bucks successfully defended the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship against Finlay and Ricochet. On January 4, 2017, at Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome, The Young Bucks lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship to Roppongi Vice. The Young Bucks regained the title from Roppongi Vice on June 11 at Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall. On August 13 Young Bucks lost the titles to Ricochet and Ryusuke Taguchi. On January 4, 2018, The Young Bucks defeated Roppongi 3K (Sho and Yoh) at Wrestle Kingdom 12 in Tokyo Dome to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship for the seventh time. Their reign lasted just 24 days before losing the titles back to Roppongi 3K at The New Beginning in Sapporo. Later that night, The Young Bucks were caught in the middle of Omega and Cody fighting over the leadership of the Bullet Club, when Omega accidentally shoved Matt Jackson. This led on February 24 at Honor Rising: Japan, The Young Bucks announcing that they were moving to NJPW's tag team division and challenging Omega and Kota Ibushi to a match, after Omega claimed that Golden☆Lovers were the best tag team in the world. During this time, Cody tried to split the Bullet Club by first triyng to The Young Bucks to leave Omega. On March 25 at Strong Style Evolved, The Young Bucks made their debut in NJPW's tag team division losing to the Golden☆Lovers. After the match, Omega offered a handshake to The Young Bucks, Nick accepted but Matt refused. Then Cody came to the ring and went to talk with Matt and accidentally shoved Nick Jackson. On April 1 at Sakura Genesis, Cody offered a handshake to The Young Bucks, but they refused. However, they ended up reconciling with Cody and later with Omega. On May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku, The Young Bucks and Marty Scurll defeated Guerrillas of Destiny and Bad Luck Fale to win the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship. Later that night, The Young Bucks challenged Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL and SANADA) into a match for IWGP Tag Team Championship. This led them to defeat EVIL and SANADA to win the titles on June 9 at Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall. Later that night, Nick and Matt reunited with Omega, thus not spliting The Elite. On August 12 The Young Bucks and Scurll lost the titles to Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa and Taiji Ishimori. The Young Bucks lost the IWGP Tag Team Championship to Tonga and Loa on September 30 at Fighting Spirit Unleashed. The Elite would leave the Bullet Club in October, but were recognized as part of the Bullet Club and being called Bullet Club Elite until January 4, 2019. At the event on January 4 at Wrestle Kingdom 13 in Tokyo Dome, The Young Bucks took part of a three-way match for the IWGP Tag Team Championship, involving Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL and SANADA) and the Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa), where The Young Bucks failed to win the titles. Personal lives The Massies were both born in Montebello, California. Matt was born Matthew Ronjon Massie on March 13, 1985 and Nick was born Nicholas Lee Massie on July 28, 1989. Their parents are Joyce and Matthew Massie Sr. They have an older sister Donajoi Crystal (born October 3, 1982) and a younger brother Malachi Marcus (born November 14, 1990), who was also a professional wrestler before retiring in 2010. Matt and Nick were born and raised in a Christian family, living in Rancho Cucamonga, California. They stayed there for nearly 18 years before moving to Hesperia, California, where they reside to this day. Matt married his girlfriend of five years, Dana, on November 1, 2008. Nick married his longtime girlfriend Ellen Montoya on April 3, 2011. Upon the Massies' departure from TNA, former TNA World Heavyweight Champion Rob Van Dam singled them out as two younger wrestlers he felt had acted disrespectfully towards him, a claim both of the brothers later denied. After their WWE tryout on August 15, 2011, Van Dam's friend and WWE announcer Booker T made similar accusations towards the brothers. The Massies are fans of wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer, having named one of their signature moves, the Meltzer Driver, after him. They have also dedicated wins on New Japan pay-per-views to him and stated that they wanted to win every Wrestling Observer Newsletter award in 2014. They ended up winning Tag Team of the Year and Best Wrestling Maneuver for the Meltzer Driver. After the death of Meltzer's father Herbert, The Young Bucks paid tribute to him at G1 Special in USA with a new version of the move, named Herbert Meltzer Driver. In September 2017, The Young Bucks were sent a cease and desist letter by WWE, who claimed they were using the company's intellectual property, in particular the "Too Sweet" hand gesture. The letter listed intellectual property violations for The Young Bucks' DVDs, shirts, photos and leggins and threatened legal action for damages of up to $150,000 per item in addition to any profits made on those items as well as legal fees. The two had recently gotten another cease and desist letter from the makers of Rick and Morty, regarding another shirt. WWE had filed to register the "Too Sweet" trademark in 2015, but later abandoned the application. Despite WWE not owning the trademark, The Young Bucks reportedly decided not to fight the cease and desist letter, instead pulling all of their merchandise featuring the gesture from stores. They also put their "Too Sweet" tights up for auction with all profits going to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. The Young Bucks used the incident to come out with a new "Cease and Desist" shirt. In addition to wrestling, the brothers produce and star in YouTube series Being the Elite, with over 150,000 subscribers, showing the paths of being an independent wrestler, as well as comedic skits alongside fellow Bullet Club members Kenny Omega, Marty Scurll, Adam "Hangman" Page, and Cody. In wrestling *'Finishing tag team moves' **''Cease and Desist'' (Sharpshooter (Nick) / Crossface (Matt) combination) – 2017 **''Early-Onset Alzheimer's'' (Double or stereo superkicks to one or two opponents respectively) **''Herbert Meltzer Driver (Springboard suicide somersault spike tombstone piledriver) – 2017 **''Indytaker / More Bang for Your Fuck (Springboard spike kneeling reverse piledriver) **''Meltzer Driver'' (Springboard somersault spike kneeling reverse piledriver) **''More Bang for Your Buck'' (Rolling fireman's carry slam by Matt followed by a 450° splash by Nick followed by a moonsault by Matt) *'Signature tag team moves' **Aided dropkick **Corkscrew neckbreaker by Matt onto Nick's knee **''Crazy Dive'' (Matt front dropkicks an opponent through the ropes, holds on, skins the cat and holds the top rope down for Nick to hit a suicide dive through his legs) **Matt powerbombs an opponent into the knees of Nick, who is seated on the top rope **''N'Sync'' (Double hip toss followed by a double back handspring into a double dropkick to the face of a seated opponent) **Springboard splash (Nick) / Standing moonsault (Matt) combination **Stereo 450° splashes **Stereo dropkicks **Wheelbarrow hold by Matt into a slingshot sitout facebuster by Nick *'Matt Jackson's / Max Buck's finishing moves' **Diving corkscrew somersault into a cutter **Sharpshooter **''Worst Case Scenario'' (Victory roll flipped forward into a modified wheelbarrow facebuster, as a wheelbarrow bodyscissors counter) *'Nick Jackson's / Jeremy Buck's finishing moves' **450° splash **Sharpshooter *'Nicknames' **"Mr. Instant Replay" (Matt) **"Slick Nick" (Nick) *'Entrance themes' **"Last Chance Saloon" by Deviant and Naive Ted (NJPW; used while a part of Bullet Club) **"Shot'Em" by QBrick (NJPW; used while a part of Bullet Club) **"Double Barrel" by Yonosuke Kitamura (NJPW) Championships and accomplishments *'DDT Pro-Wrestling' **Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship (1 time)1 *'Dragon Gate USA' **Open The United Gate Championship (1 time) *'New Japan Pro Wrestling' **IWGP Tag Team Championship (1 time) **IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship (7 times) **NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Kenny Omega (1) and Marty Scurll (1) **Super Jr. Tag Tournament (2013) *''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' **PWI ranked Matt Jackson #'66' of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2015 **PWI ranked Nick Jackson #'67' of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2015 **PWI ranked Matt Jackson #'46' of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2016 **PWI ranked Nick Jackson #'49' of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2016 **PWI ranked Matt Jackson #'42' of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2017 **PWI ranked Nick Jackson #'40' of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2017 *''Wrestling Observer Newsletter'' **Best Wrestling Maneuver (2009) More Bang for Your Buck **Best Wrestling Maneuver (2014) Meltzer Driver **Tag Team of the Year (2014-2017) 1The Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship is a singles championship defended under the 24/7 rule. The Young Bucks pinned previous champion Rick Knox together to be both recognized as champions. References Category:Bullet Club Category:Wrestlers Category:Gaijin Category:NJPW teams and stables Category:The Elite Category:Tag Teams